1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer software, and more particularly graphically depicting an originating location of received electronic mail (email) messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic mail (email) has evolved into a fast, reliable, and easy-to-use method of communication for correspondents who are geographically dispersed. While highly effective, the growing popularity of email has led to rapid growth in the number of active email accounts. Each of these accounts has one or more unique email addresses, which correlate to the physical location of the account holder as well as their originating mail server. It is also common for other information, such as physical mailing addresses, to be associated with these accounts. As a result, numerous email address books, directories and databases have been developed and implemented to facilitate identity management of both senders and recipients.
However, as the volume of email grows it is becoming more challenging for recipients to quickly remember or identify the originating location of the email sender. For example, it is not uncommon for an email recipient to receive messages from two senders that have the same first and last name (e.g., Bob C. Smith, Bob W. Smith, etc.) but reside in different physical locations. Even more common is for email senders to have different last names, but share the same first name (e.g., Bob Smith, Bob Jones, etc.). Further confusion is created when simplistic or common aliases (e.g., “Bob In Boston”) have been used by the sender in a misguided belief they are facilitating recognition of either their identity or physical address. In some cases, incoming messages are simply filed in a generalized email Inbox with no consideration of the sender's originating location, requiring the recipient to recognize each sender and determine their identity or physical address. In other cases, no information is available other than the network address of the sender's originating email server. As a result, important messages are inevitably mistaken as being from someone else, overlooked, mistakenly filed, or deleted.
Prior approaches for email identity management have included displaying associated information (e.g., mailing address, phone number, etc.) through user gestures such as the recipient right-clicking on the sender's email address in their email client interface. This approach can help reduce ambiguity and confusion if two or more senders have the same or similar names but different physical locations. However, the email recipient has to be diligent in verifying the physical location of each sender, which can be tedious, error-prone and time consuming. Furthermore, the ability to determine the sender's originating location or address is limited if their phone number is the only associated information available. Other approaches have included the implementation of junk email filtering techniques, but these simply reduce the number of misdirected emails. Still other approaches assign a priority to the incoming email, either through the application of an icon, color coding, or by filing the email in a predetermined mailbox. Other prior approaches for email identity management include the implementation of maps to facilitate the sending of email messages. For example, an image of a geographical map that graphically indicates a plurality of persons or entities can be presented in a user interface. Alternatively, the map might comprise an organization chart showing individuals' relative locations in the organizational chart. In addition, the map can be implemented such that it illustrates one or more relationships between different individuals or entities. By selecting points or areas on the map image displayed in the user interface, the sender can designate individual recipients or create distribution lists. However, no similar approach exists for allowing recipients to have their received email messages graphically displayed on a map or other representation, either by geography or other determining factor.